“They just want everyone to know its morning,” Lara told him.
He took a long sip of his coffee and made a contented sigh. “Morning in my world doesn’t start for another half an hour.” He grinned at his niece and she laughed. The sound brought tears to Amy’s eyes and she turned to stir the porridge. Her emotions were all over the place today. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be a blubbering mess. She had less reason to cry than the five people sitting at their family table who were holding it together far better than her.
She turned off the stove and divided the porridge into six bowls. Now she knew who Brandon was, she saw the resemblance between him and Darcy. His hair was the same chocolate brown and though his gaze was more shuttered, his eyes were the blue-grey of both Beth and Darcy. In contrast, the two younger siblings had taken after their father with fair hair and brown eyes. Darcy and Georgie both had a sun golden colour to their skin but Ed’s pale skin showed he hadn’t been outside much lately.
Amy added honey and milk to the table and then hesitated. Normally she ate with the family, but it didn’t seem right today, not with everyone back home. They probably had things they wanted to discuss.
Darcy glanced at her. “Sit down, Amy. You’re part of this family too.”
The words stabbed her in the gut. She shouldn’t want it so much. She’d sworn she wouldn’t rely on anyone again, wouldn’t be vulnerable. Still she could hardly walk out now. She managed a watery smile and sat next to Ed at the far end of the table.
Silence fell as they ate. She shifted, uncomfortable but not willing to be the first to speak. It wasn’t her place. Normally Beth would ask what everyone had planned for the day, and Lara would regale them all with stories of school. Sometimes Darcy and Bill would talk farm stuff and she always enjoyed learning about what it took to run a quarter-million-acre property. When they’d first told her the size of the land, she could barely fathom it.
Lara spoke first. “Am I going to school today?”
“Not if you don’t want to,” Darcy answered. “We’re going to plan Granny and Grandfather’s funeral, and you can help if you want, or else you can hang here.”
“I’ll stay with you,” she answered. “How do you plan a funeral?”
The grief in Darcy’s eyes made Amy bite her lip. “I don’t exactly know, pumpkin. We’ll have to find a funeral director, somewhere.”
“There used to be one in Carnarvon,” Brandon murmured.
Silence again and Ed and Georgie exchanged glances.
“Will Sergeant Dot want to talk to you again?” Lara asked.
“Probably. They’ll have some people look at the crash site.”
“Why?”
“It’s standard procedure, pumpkin. They want to figure out why Granny and Grandfather crashed so they can try to stop it happening again in the future.”
“Oh.” The answer seemed to satisfy her as she ate another spoonful of porridge.
Amy cleared her throat. “Is there anything you want me to do?”
“How about we deal with food?” Ed suggested. “We’re going to get a lot of visitors as news spreads.”
“Everyone will probably bring food with them,” Darcy commented. “But if you could help us deal with the visitors that would be great. Georgie, are you working?”
She shook her head. “Jimmy told me to take the week off. I’ll find us a funeral celebrant.”
“Do you want a hand?” Brandon asked.
“No, I’ll be fine. I know everyone to call.”
The phone’s shrill ring made Amy jump. Darcy sighed. He’d spent most of the day yesterday talking to people about what happened, but this wasn’t something she could offer to do for him.
Darcy answered and from the sound of the conversation it was the police. When he hung up, Brandon demanded, “What did they say?”
Darcy ignored him and instead looked at the rest of his siblings. “Major crash investigations will be up on the morning flight. Dot said she’d call before they headed out to the scene.”
It was nice the family was being kept in the loop, but Georgie had mentioned it was how they did things up there. Retribution Bay was pretty isolated out on the north west peninsula in Western Australia and towns were few and far between anywhere north of Geraldton.
“Dad, where did they take Granny and Grandfather?” Lara asked.
Ed’s hands tightened around his mug and Georgie focused on the table in front of her.
